Fluxys Belgium to merge gas trading services and to have a single Belgian reference price from October
Fluxys Belgium, the natural gas grid company and operator of the Zeebrugge LNG import terminal, has agreed to merge gas trading services and to have a single Belgian reference price from October, a move that was welcomed by gas markets.
“The question of which price index to choose for a natural gas contract is set to get simpler,” said Fluxys.
“From 1 October 2023, a single index, the Zeebrugge Trading Point (ZTP), will be used for the Belgian reference price,” the company explained.
Fluxys noted that the ZTP index was on average 14 percent lower than the Dutch Title Transfer Facility (TTF) index in 2022 because of the Belgian grid's good connections to all sources for the Northwest European market.
Merger
The move to a single index is the result of Fluxys Belgium's decision to merge the two existing gas trading services “ZTP notional” and “ZTP physical” on 1 October 2023.
“For a long time, the two gas trading services met the various preferences of wholesale market players,” Fluxys said.
“However, in recent years a shift towards the ZTP notional trading services has been observed,” the company explained.
The Belgian gas regulator, the Commission de Régulation de l’Electricité et du Gaz (CREG), has approved the merger of the two trading services and welcomed the increased transparency for the end consumer when choosing a natural gas product.
“To reflect the changed dynamics on the wholesale market, and to simplify and increase liquidity, Fluxys Belgium proposed early this year, in accordance with the sustained willingness of the CREG, to switch to a simpler system bringing together all trading volumes in the Benelux market zone at a single point, the ZTP,” Fluxys added.
“Price reporting agency ICIS will assist the market as it did with the merger of gas trading zones in France and Germany,” stated Fluxys.
Fluxys Belgium is a Euronext-listed subsidiary of infrastructure group Fluxys and headquartered in Belgium.
In addition to the Zeebrugge LNG terminal, which has an annual regasification capacity of 104 terawatt hours, Fluxys operates 4,000 kilometres of pipelines and some underground storage.
